A large number of electronic circuits can be produced on a wafer simultaneously with common method steps. Even before the individual chips are separated, said chips can be tested for their functional reliability on the wafer. Only functionally reliable components are then installed in a housing or encapsulated in a housing.
In order to perform such a test on the wafer, a so-called wafer tester can be used. A probe card is used for matching to the respective circuit to be tested.
A probe card is populated with electronic component parts and, as circuit-specific special manufacture is involved, is expensive to produce. Different contact needle sets for the probe card may be required until an electronic circuit is ready for production as semiconductor chip. Thus, a different needle technology may be used in mass production than in the development phase. In the development phase, it may arise that it is even necessary to make contact with components on a printed circuit in order to test, for example, a test program which is running on the wafer tester.
For these and other reasons, there is a requirement for the present invention.